The Fourth Pilot: Hani Hanjour
Hani Hanjour, from Ta'if, Saudi Arabia, first came to the United States in 1991
to study at the Center for English as a Second Language at the University of
Arizona. He seems to have been a rigorously observant Muslim. According to his
older brother, Hani Hanjour went to Afghanistan for the first time in the late
1980s, as a teenager, to participate in the jihad and, because the Soviets had
already withdrawn, worked for a relief agency there.55
In 1996, Hanjour returned to the United States to pursue flight training,
after being rejected by a Saudi flight school. He checked out flight schools in
Florida, California, and Arizona; and he briefly started at a couple of them
before returning to Saudi Arabia. In 1997, he returned to Florida and then,
along with two friends, went back to Arizona and began his flight training there
in earnest. After about three months, Hanjour was able to obtain his private
pilot's license. Several more months of training yielded him a commercial pilot
certificate, issued by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in April 1999.
He then returned to Saudi Arabia.56
Hanjour reportedly applied to the civil aviation school in Jeddah after
returning home, but was rejected. He stayed home for a while and then told his
family he was going to the United Arab Emirates to work for an airline. Where
Hanjour actually traveled during this time period is unknown. It is possible he
went to the training camps in Afghanistan.57
The fact that Hanjour spent so much time in Arizona may be significant. A
number of important al Qaeda figures attended the University of Arizona in
Tucson or lived in Tucson in the 1980s and early 1990s.58 Some of Hanjour's
known Arizona associates from the time of his flight training in the late 1990s
have also raised suspicion.59 FBI investigators have speculated that
al Qaeda may have directed other extremist Muslims in the Phoenix area to enroll
in aviation training. It is clear that when Hanjour lived in Arizona in the
1990s, he associated with several individuals holding extremist beliefs who have
been the subject of counterterrorism investigations. Some of them trained with
Hanjour to be pilots. Others had apparent connections to al Qaeda, including
training in Afghanistan.60
By the spring of 2000, Hanjour was back in Afghanistan. According to KSM,
Hanjour was sent to him in Karachi for inclusion in the plot after Hanjour was
identified in al Qaeda's al Faruq camp as a trained pilot, on the basis of
background information he had provided. Hanjour had been at a camp in
Afghanistan for a few weeks when Bin Ladin or Atef apparently realized that he
was a trained pilot; he was told to report to KSM, who then trained Hanjour for
a few days in the use of code words.61
On June 20, Hanjour returned home to Saudi Arabia. He obtained a U.S. student
visa on September 25 and told his family he was returning to his job in the UAE.
Hanjour did go to the UAE, but to meet facilitator Ali Abdul Aziz Ali.62
Ali opened a bank account in Dubai for Hanjour and providing the initial
funds for his trip. On December 8, Hanjour traveled to San Diego. His supposed
destination was an English as a second language program in Oakland, California,
which he had scheduled before leaving Saudi Arabia but never attended. Instead,
as mentioned earlier, he joined Nawaf al Hazmi in San Diego.63
Hazmi and Hanjour left San Diego almost immediately and drove to Arizona.
Settling in Mesa, Hanjour began refresher training at his old school, Arizona
Aviation. He wanted to train on multi-engine planes, but had difficulties
because his English was not good enough. The instructor advised him to
discontinue but Hanjour said he could not go home without completing the
training. In early 2001, he started training on a Boeing 737 simulator at Pan Am
International Flight Academy in Mesa. An instructor there found his work well
below standard and discouraged him from continuing. Again, Hanjour persevered;
he completed the initial training by the end of March 2001. At that point,
Hanjour and Hazmi vacated their apartment and started driving east, anticipating
the arrival of the "muscle hijackers"-the operatives who would storm
the cockpits and control the passengers. By as early as April 4, Hanjour and
Hazmi had arrived in Falls Church, Virginia.64
The three pilots in Florida continued with their training. Atta and Shehhi
finished up at Huffman and earned their instrument certificates from the FAA in
November. In mid-December 2000, they passed their commercial pilot tests and
received their licenses. They then began training to fly large jets on a flight
simulator. At about the same time, Jarrah began simulator training, also in
Florida but at a different center. By the end of 2000, less than six months
after their arrival, the three pilots on the East Coast were simulating flights
on large jets.65
